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Classification and Indexing of Philippine Indigenous Materials with Emphasis on the Cordillera

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Classification and Indexing of Philippine Indigenous Materials with Emphasis on the Cordillera Submitted on: 03.06.2016 Classification and Indexing of Philippine Indigenous Materials with Emphasis on the Cordillera Cristina B. Villanueva University of the Philippines Baguio Copyright © 2016 by Cristina B. Villanueva. This work is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 Abstract: This paper looks into the limitations of the Library of Congress Subject Headings in assigning subject access terms for indigenous Cordillera materials acquired by the University of the Philippines Baguio Cordillera Studies Collection Library. Likewise, problems in using the Library of Congress Classification scheme in assigning classification numbers are briefly discussed. As cases in point, a number of indigenous Cordillera terms that have no equivalent in the LCSH are described. Aside from terms with no American or English language equivalent, issues on spelling variations and varying forms of names are examined. These problems result to low findability and use of Cordillera materials. To solve the problem, a few measures using the iLib online cataloging system are presented. Finally, the paper enumerates recommendations that should be pursued to improve assignment of subject access terms for indigenous Cordillera materials. Keywords: Cordillera indigenous materials, classification, indexing, Library of Congress Subject Headings, Library of Congress Classification, subject access terms. Background The Cordillera Region is located in the northern part of Luzon Island, home to the largest concentration of indigenous groups in the Philippines. The region is made up of six provinces and two cities namely: Abra, Apayao, Benguet, Ifugao, Kalinga, Mountain Province, Baguio City, and Tabuk City. Its name comes from the Gran Cordillera, from the Spanish meaning mountain, that traverses the Region and that has served as protection for the Igorot people from Spanish aggression (Scott 1975). The Region is home to 7 major ethnolinguistic groups: the Tinggian of Abra, Isneg of Apayao, Kalinga, Kankana-ey of southern Mountain Province, Ibaloy of Benguet, Ifugao, and Bontok of northern Mountain Province. Under these major groups are several sub- ethnolinguistic groupings. The geographic terrain of the region earned the inhabitants the collective albeit derogatory name Igorots (Scott 1993). Igolot comes from the Tagalog word golot or golod which means “mountain chain,” and the prefix i meaning “people of.” Thus, igolot means “of the hill or mountain.” 1 For three hundred years, the Spaniards were not able to subjugate the Igorots. Their resistance and independence from foreign invasion was responsible for the persistence of indigenous traditions and practices at least up to the early 1900s. The Igorots still observe some of their indigenous practices although not as frequent and in the manner that these were originally conducted. Modernization has caused a number of their indigenous rituals, traditions and customs to be forgotten and abandoned. There is, however, a growing interest among the youth to learn, understand, and to reconnect with their indigenous communities and their culture. The University of the Philippines Baguio Cordillera Studies Collection Library The University of the Philippines Baguio (UPB) was established in 1961 as a degree granting college of the University of the Philippines Diliman campus. Initially an arts and science college, it was granted autonomous status in 1999 and finally became the 7th constituent university of the UP system in 2002. One component of UP Baguio’s aim is to have a strong Cordillera studies and research. Research conducted over the years focused on ethnic studies, regional communities, policy planning, natural resource management, indigenous mathematical and biological knowledge, traditional health knowledge, material culture, political systems and institutions to name a few. The Cordillera Studies Collection (CSC) Library, is a section of the UP Baguio Main Library that provides materials on the Cordillera Region to students, faculty, staff and researchers. With this fundamental objective, the Library’s acquisition policy has been geared towards the acquisition of materials that support the continuing mission of the University in sustaining its niche in Cordillera studies. The Library endeavors to aggressively collect all materials on the Cordillera and in whatever format these are presented. With the growing acquisition of Cordillera materials, the CSC Library endeavors to have these materials accessed by students, faculty, staff, and researchers. Use of the Library and its collection has steadily increased over the years. Researchers from both the University and the community have recognized the importance and value of the collection. It was during my stint as sole staff of the CSC Library that I came to realize the extensive and enormous problem brought about by the seemingly inappropriate subject heading terms given by catalogers to information sources and the search terms often used by readers and users based on their search requests. This disparate assigned terms and search terms is especially evident for indigenous materials. Readers would normally search for materials using local or vernacular terms or the so called natural language rather than their American or English language equivalence. Frequently asked are sources on the dap-ay, ulog, bodong, pagta, tengao, bulol, cañao, Hudhud. Likewise sought after are direct or specific terms in the natural language like headhunting, agricultural rituals, ancestral domain, legal pluralism, small scale mining, terms that are not represented in the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). These encounters with readers and researchers, I would say, are opportunities which manifest the need to look at the cataloging and indexing policies of the Library. It is a choice between using a foreign developed LCSH against listening to and satisfying the need of users. The Library should see these experiences as prospects for collaboration with users for more appropriate, specific and relevant subject access terms. The University of the Philippines Library system, composed of 7 campuses located in different parts of the Philippines, adopts a uniform cataloging policy and uses the Library of 2 Congress Classification (LCC) scheme in assigning call numbers and the LCSH in assigning subject access terms. UP Diliman Main Library, often seen as the lead library, lays down the cataloging policies seen as a means of achieving uniformity and consistency in cataloging and classification of materials. The Function of Subject Analysis Subject analysis is a library function responsible for determining and assigning of subject headings which aids in locating materials or books, journal articles, audiovisual materials on the shelves. The ‘aboutness’ of materials is determined and conveyed through what we call subject headings. Library materials regularly talk or discuss a particular topic, the cataloger or indexer then translates the topic to authorized or ‘established’ terms. These ‘established’ terms are what readers should use when searching under subject headings in catalogs. This task of preferring terms over other terms eliminates numerous synonymous terms for one term and allows for one and only one term to be used. This in cataloging is called vocabulary control. The principle of controlled vocabulary likewise aims to maintain uniformity in assigning subject access terms that is—using a single heading for a term that has variations in spelling; synonymous terms; English terms that has foreign language counterparts; or popular terms as against scientific terms. A primary consideration in subject analysis is the reader, the user, or the researcher. The principle of the reader as the focus in assigning subject headings was well elucidated by Cutter’s Rules for a Dictionary Catalog (Chan 1978). Cutter emphasized that the reader or the end-user’s convenience should be first and foremost in the catalogers mind when assigning subject access terms. The ease of users should primarily take precedence over the cataloger’s or indexer’s convenience by ensuring that materials are easily found by users or readers when searching the Library catalog. Limitations of the LCSH and the LCC Scheme in Classifying and Indexing Cordillera Materials The LCSH and LCC scheme developed in response to the need for class or call numbers and subject headings of the growing collection of the Library of Congress, the biggest library in the world. As materials were accumulated, subject headings were added to the LCSH list. Subject headings were created and thought of based on materials acquired and not based on some theoretical concepts (Broughton 2012; Chan 1978; Smiraglia 1990). If a newly acquired material cannot be assigned a subject heading because existing topics are not appropriate, a term is created to accommodate the material. Terms are added as the need arises. This LC policy called literary warrant partly explains the lack of subject headings for unique local Cordillera materials. Since the Library of Congress does not attempt to collect all materials published, some Cordillera materials cannot be assigned subject headings from the LCSH. Classifying and indexing Cordillera literature presents challenges especially for someone who has no knowledge of the Region’s unique culture, peoples, society and history. Taylor (2004) affirms the value of knowing the culture of a particular place before one
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